Not finished yet.
We are surrounded by design that let us feel good, but is that enough? The alarming popularity from the #selfcare and #selflove on social media shows us that we struggle with feeling happy (Haaij, 2016). We have the urge to connect with others but to have status means we have to be individual and independent but the downside is that it leads to depression and anger. “Being happy” is nowadays the good - for individuals but also for governments and companies, who know that happy employees are also productive employees. So how is it possible that we are being surrounded by knowledge and products that make us feel good since the Industrial era and make our lives easier, we are still searching for what makes us happy and the reason why the depression rate is high is still unknown? I am researching from my position as a experience designer how we can involve
Title:
I was made to make you feel good but is that good enough for you to stay with me?
There I was, high in the sky, looking at the horizon and feeling liberated and proud that I do my job where I was designed for really good. I was designed for to make people's lives easier and that they can travel around the world fast. But what i noticed is that they only notice me our my colleagues when we fail in our job. Did i not make them happy every time i bring them in the magical place in the clouds? “was i not good enough? Did they forget me?" asked airbus himself.
Since the year fiftys our material well-being has doubled. We have so many products as ever before. But if you look at or emotional well-being or happiness, it has stayed the same ( Desmet, 2011). Designers in general problem solvers and love to make people’s life easier. But from research it proven that people can be perfectly happy without designers improving their circumstances all the time ( Desmet, 2011). We solve problems, so for example you are scared to come to late on your work. There are several options to help you be make you awake, apps, alarm clocks, even some give light. So yes in that way products evoke positive emotions, but as soon the the problem has solved we quickly adapt to the new situation which become the new standard. If we buy a new product we often lose the good feeling after a week (Desmet, 2011). So how can we make experiences more sustainable and people’s well being more high?
a long long long time ago we believed that our happiness was in god hands, not on this earth, But in the end we managed to take happiness into our own hands. Happiness became real. Philosopher Socrates was on of the first persons that believed that luck our happiness was in our own hands. Socrates argues that happiness can be achieved by practicing philosophy with fervent enthusiasm. In that time the priests discouraged the uppion of Socrates because happiness will never be in our power and will not reach the highest possible level in this world.
